But if you really believe in the nutritional value of ingesting your placenta, the easier way is in capsule form.

A Sunshine Coast couple will pick up your placenta from the hospital and make a jar or two of pills, all within 24 hours.

Natalie Stokell is co-founder of Placenta Vitality and says her partner, Pete Ansell, is the qualified chef who prepares the placentas for "encapsulation".

"We steam it really lightly with a few herbs and then it's sliced really finely and then put in a dehydrating machine, and then it's ground into fine powder and put in little gel capsules," she said.

"It has a slight taste a little bit like an omelette."

Lifetime of use

Ms Stokell says even though the pills are meant for the immediate post-natal period, they can last much longer.

"If you don't take them all after the birth then you can keep them in the freezer," she said.

"[The processed placenta] is totally dry and because it's dehydrated it should last.

"Some people keep them for their menopause."

Ms Stokell believes the benefits of the pills are many and varied.

"It regulates your hormones, keeps you on a kind of even keel, can boost your milk supply [and is] for energy levels, for your energy system," she said.

"It's like a post-partum superfood."

The post-partum period begins immediately after the birth of a child and extends for about six weeks.

It's a time when a mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state.

Is it regulated?

Ms Stokell says Chinese medicine use of the placenta has inspired users and placenta product makers in the West.

But the service her company provides is currently unregulated in Australia.

"There's a kind of semi-official body in Australia called Placenta Services Australia (PSA) who are working on a code of practice, but at the moment no it's not regulated," she said.

On its website, the PSA describes itself as an "Australia wide directory of Placenta Service Providers", that "does not endorse the person providing the service, nor provide a guarantee of their training or qualifications."

"Families who choose to utilize the services on these pages take full responsibility for using the remedies at their own risk."

When contacted by the ABC, about regulating placenta products, the TGA said it was aware of this issue and is currently investigating to determine what, if any, action is required.

Screening clients

But Ms Stokell says her company will not process a placenta if there are signs the mother is unhealthy.

"Well we ask the person if they have any infectious diseases," she said

"A lot of the time [the placentas] will come from the hospital, a hospital wouldn't release a placenta if it was unhealthy."

She says there were two occasions when her company was unable to process placentas.

"There have been complications and their placenta had to be taken away for testing," she said.

"I guess the hospital, or the midwife if they're birthing at home, will give the placenta a bit of a check."

Anecdotal evidence

Ms Stokell says the pills helped her to overcome emotional pitfalls after giving birth last year.

"About two weeks in I just had a really emotional day and started crying and [my partner] said to me, 'have you had your capsule today?' and I hadn't had them, and that really sold them, like, wow these really work," she said.

"Basically we suggest you take six a day for the first couple of weeks and then take them intuitively.

"It's important that you wean yourself off or wean yourself down, otherwise you will get an emotional drop."